Wednesday 23 June 2010

Slovenia 0 - England 1

Yeah, baby, yeah! We are England - we invented Association Football (and Rugby and Cricket and every other game worth playing). We have a population of nearly sixty million and we managed to find eleven who could beat Slovenia, the location of which is a complete mystery to me, which has a population of three million. And we beat them (increasingly nervously, from my perspective), by one goal to nil.

We're fucking ace, we're fucking ace. We're going to win the Cup. Fuck everybody else - we're ace.

Oh, and the US somehow managed to fumble their way to the top of the Group, in order to qualify for the knock-out stages. England deliberately allowed this, because we wanted to meet Argentina in the Quarter Finals, rather than the Final, for some reason that I'll think up, later.

10 comments:

Fid said...

I think I'm right in saying that England have the only fans in this World Cup that have managed to drown out the sound of the vuvuzela horns.

Huge following and not a thrown seat in anger!

I've stopped predicting the results now Matt - How can one predict what the unpredictable are going to do?

Much better performance yesterday.

Lord James of Milnershire was outstanding out on the right.

Rooney has yet to fire on all cylinders, let's hope he's been saving himself for 'Ze Germans'

Radagast said...

Bob: Yes, it's a bit like an english summer, isn't it - one is pleasantly surprised when it isn't a complete pile of shit, but one deliberately sets one's expectations low, in order to avoid disappointment? Well, look at it this way: we've already got farther than both the finalists of 2006.

I thought the Germans looked good against Ghana, but then I don't really know how good Ghana is, as a team - we'll find out on Saturday, when the US is playing its Second Round match. Remember Euro '96, when we beat Holland 4-1? I want a performance like that - I don't want our best performance to be reserved for glorious and narrow defeat, which seems to be our lot, a la Argentina in 1998, or Germany, in 1990.

Matt

Fid said...

I wonder if there are two German bloggers having the same discussion somewhere.

My son text me today, he said, "I don't fancy our chances much against the Germans."

My reply:

"The last team Germany want to face at this stage is us."

We upped our game the other night by about 50% - we need to increase it again against Germany.

Dunno how you feel Matt but we seem to try harder [perform better] against the 'bigger' teams or if it's a do or die scenario, as it was the other night.

I couldn't possibly predict the outcome for Sunday... in truth, I don't want to jinx the outcome.

All I can say is, may the best English team win :-)

Radagast said...

Bob: Well, despite "1966 and all that," and the small matter of a couple of world wars (which are very nearly outside living memory, now), not to mention Gerd Muller/Peter Bonnetti in 1970 and the penalty shout-outs in 1990 and 1996, I don't think the Germans see games with England in the same way. The big rivalry is with the Dutch, as I understand it. I think any dialogue between those German bloggers is going to go something along the lines of:

Jurgen: So, Karl, England in the Second Round, huh?

Karl: Ja... Anyway, did you hear about Tomas - he's having his kidney stones removed?

The way I see it, we've got several potential match winners: Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard and the apparently massively-underrated Joe Cole - players who do things that are a bit out of the ordinary on a regular basis. If we're to progress much further in the Tournament, then they've all got to start playing to their full potential... If not against Germany, then certainly against Argentina who look superb, especially with the attacking options they've got.

But as for Germany - no predictions from me, either. Maybe the game against Slovenia was the turning point, and we'll start to run into some oustanding form...

Matt

Fid said...

I hope you are right me old china.

Should 'china' be capitalized when used in the above context?

Damn the English language!

Fid

Radagast said...

Bob: LOL. I've given up trying to understand what people are saying - too many permutations of different meanings, and little clarification (if any). However, "china plate" is rhyming slang for "mate," and I guess because "china" in this context refers to a type of clay, rather than the country, it should be spelt with a lower case "c".

Fid said...

Drei Löwen

:-)

Radagast said...

Bob: Huh? That's a hotel in Munich, isn't it?

Fid said...

Three Lions - the translation doesn't do plurals it seems.

Radagast said...

Ah! Understood.